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4 Urban Vacant Land: Levels of Urban Vacant Land
4.1 This section focuses exclusively on urban vacant land, its levels over the past 7 years and its location within Scotland. As previously stated, urban vacant land is land which is unused for the purposes for which it is held and is viewed as an appropriate site for development. The land must either have had prior development on it or preparatory work has taken place in anticipation of future development. Unlike derelict land, urban vacant land is generally not in need of rehabilitation before new development can commence.
4.2 Table 10 (overleaf) shows the amount of urban vacant land in Scotland, split by local authority for the years 2002-2008. Chart 5 shows the ten councils with the highest amount of urban vacant land in 2008. In 2008, there were 2,630 hectares of urban vacant land recorded in Scotland. Glasgow City has the most urban vacant land with 606 hectares, followed by North Lanarkshire (332 hectares) and then North Ayrshire (205 hectares). In 2008, the largest piece of urban vacant land in Scotland was the Interlink Industrial Estate site in North Lanarkshire, (23 hectares) followed by a site at Heathhall (Dumfries) in Dumfries & Galloway (23 hectares) and a site in Redburn, Irvine (North Ayrshire, 23 hectares).
Chart 5: Urban Vacant land by local authority, 2008
Table 7: Total urban vacant land 1 by local authority area, 2002-2008 2
Local Authority | Total Urban Vacant Land Area (ha) 3 | % Change 2002-2008 |
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2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 |
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Aberdeen City | 69 | 37 | 53 | 79 | 52 | 35 | 23 | -66% |
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Aberdeenshire | 20 | 17 | 17 | 14 | 27 | 39 | 39 | 99% |
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Angus | 33 | 33 | 31 | 53 | 48 | 48 | 46 | 40% |
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Argyll & Bute | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 117 | 101 | 80 | 257% |
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Clackmannanshire | 27 | 22 | 25 | 45 | 45 | 52 | 50 | 84% |
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Dumfries & Galloway | 51 | 51 | 50 | 36 | 36 | 35 | 34 | -33% |
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Dundee City | 187 | 176 | 190 | 174 | 193 | 178 | 165 | -12% |
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East Ayrshire | 57 | 48 | 44 | 45 | 37 | 34 | 34 | -40% |
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East Dunbartonshire | 39 | 60 | 57 | 28 | 28 | 27 | 20 | -50% |
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East Lothian | 28 | 27 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 3 | -89% |
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East Renfrewshire | 20 | 11 | 13 | 20 | 19 | 20 | 18 | -13% |
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Edinburgh, City of | 57 | 47 | 39 | 81 | 74 | 75 | 84 | 48% |
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Eilean Siar | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | -7% |
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Falkirk | 134 | 120 | 117 | 108 | 99 | 52 | 51 | -62% |
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Fife | 80 | 97 | 107 | 123 | 110 | 89 | 99 | 23% |
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Glasgow City | 595 | 591 | 579 | 564 | 596 | 569 | 606 | 2% |
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Highland | 203 | 191 | 190 | 173 | 147 | 115 | 99 | -51% |
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Inverclyde | 62 | 73 | 71 | 75 | 85 | 80 | 101 | 65% |
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Midlothian | 27 | 30 | 34 | 33 | 26 | 21 | 21 | -23% |
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Moray | 31 | 31 | 29 | 30 | 28 | 27 | 27 | -14% |
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North Ayrshire | 148 | 188 | 184 | 201 | 199 | 213 | 205 | 38% |
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North Lanarkshire | 500 | 457 | 363 | 363 | 350 | 346 | 332 | -34% |
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Orkney Islands | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | -78% |
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Perth & Kinross | 8 | 7 | 18 | 28 | 17 | 22 | 11 | 32% |
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Renfrewshire | 163 | 184 | 203 | 195 | 195 | 183 | 177 | 9% |
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Scottish Borders | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 7 | 16 | 20 | 23% |
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Shetland Islands | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 13% |
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South Ayrshire | 31 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 14 | -55% |
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South Lanarkshire | 167 | 162 | 150 | 137 | 122 | 121 | 138 | -17% |
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Stirling | 39 | 36 | 34 | 29 | 28 | 25 | 25 | -37% |
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West Dunbartonshire | 70 | 40 | 39 | 36 | 34 | 31 | 31 | -56% |
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West Lothian | 66 | 65 | 65 | 58 | 58 | 64 | 65 | -2% |
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Scotland | 2,968 | 2,875 | 2,784 | 2,808 | 2,815 | 2,654 | 2,630 | -11% |
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1. Figures may not sum due to rounding
2. See Annex Table E for details of council participation in different years.
3. During 2008, historical data for the years 2002-2007 was revised to remove sites that had been taken out of the survey for definitional reasons and to correct any other previous errors highlighted in the 2008 survey returns. Further information on this process is available in the Annex along with unamended historical data for the survey years of 1996-2001.
4.3 Table 7 shows that in 2002 there were 2,968 hectares of urban vacant land in Scotland. This figure has fluctuated somewhat in the intermediate period, however by 2008 it had dropped to 2,630 hectares (an overall net decrease of 338 hectares). This represents a net fall in levels of urban vacant land in Scotland of 11% between 2002 and 2008. A small number of councils did not participate in every survey between 2002-2008. In those cases, the most recent available data has been used to provide an estimate for the appropriate year.
4.4 Changes in the relative amount of urban vacant land in Scotland show greater variation at the council level. Some councils have seen their levels of urban vacant land in 2002 more than half by 2008. This includes East Lothian, Falkirk, West Dunbartonshire and Aberdeen City. Smaller but still relatively large decreases are seen in Highland, North Lanarkshire, Stirling and South Lanarkshire. Some of the larger relative changes for certain councils (for example Orkney Islands) are due to there only being a small base of recorded land in 2002.
4.5 Looking at the 6 councils with the most urban vacant land in 2002, Chart 6 (overleaf) shows the change since 2002 in total levels of urban vacant land. Glasgow City has consistently had the highest amount of urban vacant land in Scotland for the period 2002-2008. This authority had 595 hectares of urban vacant land in 2002, increasing slightly by 2008, with 606 hectares reported (a net increase of 2%). In contrast to Glasgow City, North Lanarkshire has seen a clear decrease in its level of urban vacant land during the past 5 years. 500 hectares of urban vacant land were recorded within North Lanarkshire in 2002, decreasing to 332 hectares by 2008 (a net decrease of 34%). Three of the remaining four councils in the chart below have recorded decreases in the past 7 reporting years. Highland, Dundee City and South Lanarkshire have shown clear decreases in the total amount of urban vacant land with a net drop of 104 hectares (-51%) in Highland, from 203 hectares in 2002 to 99 hectares in 2008. Dundee had a net drop of 22 hectares (-12%), from 187 hectares in 2002 to 165 hectares by 2008, and South Lanarkshire's net drop was of 29 hectares (-17%), from 167 hectares in 2002 to 138 hectares by 2008. Uniquely in Renfrewshire, more urban vacant land was recorded in 2008 than 2002 (increasing from 163 hectares in 2002 to 177 hectares by 2008), although the amount has been declining from a peak of 203 hectares in 2004.
Chart 6: Total Level of Urban Vacant Land in top 6 local authorities, 2002-2008
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